I’m finding that many Newbery Award/Pulitzer Prize authors are more about being “Innovative” and “Multi-cultural” which are both good things, but sometimes choices are tending to be too racy, dark, or amoral. And in some cases not even accurate representations such as “Good Scent from a Strange Mountain” (read amazon.com reviews). I have found this to be true also in some Caldecott Medal Winners and other children’s book awards. Some of the choices were really dark/alarming. In recent years virtue often seems compromised by a select few and their idea of “literary art.” Comments on some recent awards: Although I love Uri Shulevitz ‘How I learned Geography” (2009), the Knuffle Bunny books were sort of whiny in tone, with a dumb Dad portral (but great scenes of Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood, the reason for it’s honorable mention I’m sure). But this is more true for Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Children’s Book Awards (UK) – such as the Savage by David Almond, but the Snow Goose seems intriguing, but also overly ‘steely,’ cold – a very modern obsession.
